Seeking Feedback on Charging Solutions for High-Order Smart Cubes

[EarthCube]

Hello fellow cubers,

My name is TaoYi, and I am the designer and founder of TaoCube. I have been deeply involved in the study of cube structures for over a decade. On various forums in China, I have shared numerous designs that have now become mainstream in the world of cube enthusiasts.

Currently, I am working on creating high-order smart cubes, specifically focusing on a 4x4 smart Bluetooth cube. However, I am facing a significant challenge with the charging mechanism. The core of the circuit is located at the center of the cube, making it difficult to implement an effective charging solution.

The primary issue lies with the power output of wireless charging coils, which is currently too low to be practical. This presents a substantial engineering challenge. Therefore, I am reaching out to the global cubing community to gather feedback and suggestions.

Would it be acceptable for you to remove the four center caps to charge the cube? Does this seem too cumbersome, or do you have any other innovative ideas or solutions for charging high-order smart cubes?

I greatly appreciate your insights and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Best regards,TaoCube Designer & Founder

 

[Exmestify]

Hello fellow cubers,

My name is TaoYi, and I am the designer and founder of TaoCube. I have been deeply involved in the study of cube structures for over a decade. On various forums in China, I have shared numerous designs that have now become mainstream in the world of cube enthusiasts.

Currently, I am working on creating high-order smart cubes, specifically focusing on a 4x4 smart Bluetooth cube. However, I am facing a significant challenge with the charging mechanism. The core of the circuit is located at the center of the cube, making it difficult to implement an effective charging solution.

The primary issue lies with the power output of wireless charging coils, which is currently too low to be practical. This presents a substantial engineering challenge. Therefore, I am reaching out to the global cubing community to gather feedback and suggestions.

Would it be acceptable for you to remove the four center caps to charge the cube? Does this seem too cumbersome, or do you have any other innovative ideas or solutions for charging high-order smart cubes?

I greatly appreciate your insights and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Best regards,TaoCube Designer & Founder

i think removing the centers would be difficult... maybe (im not good at this. sry if my suggestion doesnt make sense) in the white corner or something, cant u keep a temporary battery which would feed the energy to the battery in the core through the long legs (because they come very close to each other
just a suggestion tho!
hope u find the solution soon

 

[EarthCube]

i think removing the centers would be difficult... maybe (im not good at this. sry if my suggestion doesnt make sense) in the white corner or something, cant u keep a temporary battery which would feed the energy to the battery in the core through the long legs (because they come very close to each other
just a suggestion tho!
hope u find the solution soon

thx，but the best solution I have found so far is to disassemble the outer shells of the four central pieces, because the interior of a 4x4 Rubik's Cube is not fixed, but rather a rotating sphere.

 

[Exmestify]

thx，but the best solution I have found so far is to disassemble the outer shells of the four central pieces, because the interior of a 4x4 Rubik's Cube is not fixed, but rather a rotating sphere.

but it will be fixed when the cube is charging right...?

 

[EarthCube]

but it will be fixed when the cube is charging right...?

Because a 4x4 Rubik's Cube lacks fixed center pieces, special cases like OLL Parity and PLL Parity can occur. After encountering these situations during solving, the originally corresponding center positions can shift. It would be very troublesome to make all six faces chargeable.

 

[EarthCube]

The solution you provided, placing the battery in the corner piece, would be more suitable for a 2x2 cube. To implement this on a 4x4 cube, special modifications to the corner pieces would be required, which would significantly increase the engineering workload. It would be similar to the base structure of the GAN11, with additional usable charging contacts. However, this approach would result in uneven mass distribution in the corner pieces, which could affect the cube's performance. Due to language differences, my description might not be very precise.

but it will be fixed when the cube is charging right...?